Exploding Diagon Alley
by ginnys01
Summary: When James and Sirius sneak out to Diagon Alley, things go wrong


**Story Title:** Exploding Diagon Alley

**School: **Durmstrang

**Theme: ****take a look at an extravagant magical catastrophe.**

**Main Prompt: ****[Action] Explosion**

**Side Prompt: ****[Object] Floo Powder**

**Side Prompt: ****[Pairing of any kind] James Potter/Sirius Black**

**Year: **3

**Word Count: 1644**

* * *

"James Fleamont Potter!"

It only took a few seconds for James to appear in the dining room of Potter Manor, closely followed by his best friend Sirius Black.

"Yes, mum?" the twelve-year-old asked, trying to look innocent.

"Don't give me that look, James. You're grounded. Sirius, go pack your trunk."

The failed looks of innocence disappeared from both boys' faces and were quickly replaced by horror.

"but, Mum—"

"No, James. Don't try it; just go up to your room." With a sullen look, both boys turned around and started to make their way to James' room.

Euphemia Potter turned around with a sigh. What was she going to do? She didn't want to send Sirius back home, but she didn't want to leave the boys spending all the time together either; they had to be punished somehow. After what felt like sufficient time for the boys to have finished packing Sirius his stuff, but not long enough for the boys to get into more trouble, Euphemia made her way up the stairs. Upon entering James' room, she saw the two boys sitting on James' bed, while Sirius his trunked stood packed at the bottom of his bed. Euphemia knew it had been a bad idea to let the two boys share a room, but the state of the room was even worse than she had thought possible. James' clothes were thrown around the room, his books joining in on different places and toys spread around in between. It was all that Euphemia could do to not fall over anything.

"Trixie."

"Yes, mistress Potter?" A small elf appeared in the doorway to the room, having received previous instruction to never enter the room.

"Please move Sirius his trunk to the guest bedroom. After that, the same rules will apply for that room as they do for this one."

"Yes, mistress Potter." With a snap of her fingers, both the trunk and the house-elf had disappeared.

The fearful and disappointed look that had filled the boys only seconds before, was replaced with a look of relief.

"You are both grounded and will have a bedroom curfew, but we shall not be sending Sirius home. However, the trip to Diagon Alley from next week is cancelled. I shall be going to Diagon alley at some point to collect your school things." Leaving both boys sitting on the bed, Euphemia left the room.

*hphphp*

"James?" Sirius opened the door to James' bedroom. It had been a week since both boys had been grounded and they had not seen any of their other friends since. They were supposed to be going to Diagon Alley the next day to meet up with their friends but being grounded put a stop to that. The fun of still having each other had lessened slightly as both boys realized that after entering their rooms in the evening, they were unable to leave until the next morning, making it impossible for the boys to sneak into each other's room to talk during the night. The second night they had tried to circumvent this by one of them not entering the correct room, but Mrs Potter must have put some sort of alarm on the door as she was upstairs within 5 min of curfew, forcing both boys into their own rooms.

"Yes?" came the bored reply form James.

"Do you want to sneak out to Diagon alley tomorrow? Remus and Peter will still be there."

James sat up; his eyes glowing, ready for the promised mischief. "Definitely, but how do you want to sneak out?"

"Easy we use the floo network!" Sirius replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world."

"But how do we stop my parents from following us?"

"Easy, we swap the floo powder for something else after we grab the floo powder that we need. That way even if they do try and follow, they can't."

"yes! We can grind up left-over potion ingredients and use those!" James replied happily as the thought of sneaking out, cheered him up. It didn't take long for both boys to start prepping for their escape plan as both boys rushed to their trunks to find any left-over potion ingredients.

*hphphp*

Diagon Alley was full of loud chatter and laughter. Children of all ages were running around, trying to escape their parents. Adults were running after their children, trying to stop them from getting into sweet- and toy shops.

It was in the middle of this joyous day that a loud bang was heard by all. Within seconds everyone stopped to listen, wondering what had just happened. The second ear-splitting bang made people move. Adults who were alone, or with just one child, grabbed them and ran towards the apparation point, ready to go home. Those who had more than one child with them, moved towards the nearest shop, hoping to reach safety and floo home. As the crowded heading toward the apparation point thickened, people started to change course, joining those who were trying to use the floo network from the different shops.

People pushed and pulled, trying to get into the leaky cauldron, hoping to use the floo; they pushed even more, trying to get out. The pub, which didn't look great on the best of its days, was filled with smoke coming from the fireplace.

The shop next to the leaky cauldron, only had people trying to exit, adding to the crowd trying to escape.

In Flourish and Blotts, it didn't take long for people to reach the floo behind the counter, but as soon as the shop clerk picked up some floo powder and threw it into the floo, the fire didn't turn green as it was supposed to, instead the fire made a lot of noise, sending sparks everywhere. It wasn't long before one of the sparks found its way towards a piece of paper, and another found its way to a book. From the book it went to the next and soon, the fire was spreading in the shop, smoke filling the room as people started to push towards the door.

"It's the floo!"

"Don't try the floo!"

The sound of more explosions followed as people in every shop across the alleyway realised that the floo network was exploding. The warning had come too late. People started to push towards the apparation point and the leaky cauldron as people realised the only options were apparation or going into muggle London. People fell on the streets but were walked over, unable to get up again.

"Mummy!" a small voice, barely audible was shouting through the crowd as children and parents got separated as people tried to leave.

The calmness didn't return to the alley until hours later after the aurors had arrived, and after the anti-apparation shield had been taken down, letting people apparate straight out. On discovering no death-threats the aurors signalled for medi-wizards and healers to come and help because even though there had been no battle, the street looked as if one had been fought. The healers quickly started to transport the injured to St Mungo's where others were ready to start healing. Patients were sorted into urgent care and non-urgent care and long term versus short term, as healers started to sort their way through the burst of patients. People searching for loved ones where lead into a separate room after being cleared and given calming draughts.

*hphphp*

"Master Fleamont, Aurors are asking to see you."

"Thank you, Trixie." Fleamont got up as Trixie popped out of the room. He slowly made his way to the entrance hall where the aurors were waiting.

"Did you find what caused our floo to explode?" he asked upon reaching the two aurors standing in the hallway.

"We think so, sir. We need to see your floo powder first to be sure," the elder of the two replied, a serious look on his face. The walk to the study was done in silence. Upon entering the room, Fleamont offered both aurors a seat as he went to grab the floo powder jar from the top of the fireplace.

"Here is our—"

"Is something wrong Mr Potter?" the same auror as before asked.

Fleamont nodded, "This isn't floo powder." Dipping his hand into the pot, he grabbed some powder and smelled it. "If I'm not incorrect this is a mixture of grinded aconite, powdered Root of Asphodel and grinded bat wings."

Fleamont put the pot in front of the aurors and opened his cupboard. "This is my spare bag of floo powder." He quickly opened the bag and pulled some out. "This is floo powder," Fleamont said, placing the bag next to the pot on the desk.

As the aurors started to pick up the items, Fleamont eyes went wide. "I'm guessing my wife tried to use the powder from the pot, thinking it was floo powder and it exploded our floo."

"Not only your floo, sir. The whole floo network." The younger of the two aurors said, a look of horror appearing on his face as soon as he realised what he said.

The look of horror was mirrored on both the second aurors face and on Mr Potter's face.

"so this caused the explosions in Diagon Alley yesterday?" Mr Potter asked, knowing that the aurors weren't allowed to say, but the elder nodded anyway. "My son and his best friend are currently up in their rooms, due to sneaking into Diagon alley yesterday, but I think they may have done more than just sneak out," Mr Potter continued, sagging into his chair.

"We'll come back later to talk to them, sir," the eldest of the aurors said, getting up. We'll show ourselves out.

The only thing Fleamont Potter could do was nod his head as he realised just how bad his son had messed up.


End file.
